Feature

An H&H Q&A with Kathryn Stockett
By LAURA FOOTE

Editor's Note: The back story to this interview began in the early 1990s when Hills & Hamlet's illustrator Laura Foote was living in Manhattan and very much a part of the Mississippi network that is strongly present there.  Fellow Mississippian Tate Taylor arrived as a recent graduate of Ole Miss and an aspiring filmmaker in need of a place to stay.  Tapping into his home state's resources, mutual friends put the two together. A few months later the living arrangements were expanded to include his childhood friend and hopeful writer, Kathryn Stockett.

In 2008, the three had long been separated geographically. It was the year that Laura moved to Leiper's Fork while Tate was in Los Angeles making movies and Kathryn was married and a mother, living in Atlanta, and finalizing her first novel "The Help." Two years later on an April afternoon, Laura called her novelist friend for some inside skinny on the book and to dish a bit about their other former roommate.

LF: Hey Kitty, let's start out with a few quick facts.
KS: OK.
LF: How many weeks now has your book been a New York Times best seller? Do you know?
KS: I only know because my publisher sent me flowers last week—it hit 52 weeks.
LF: That's crazy, Kathryn. A full year! And it's been contracted for how many languages?
KS: We have contracts for 35 countries and I think it comes to like 32 different languages.
LF: The covers are all different, right? What are some that stand out?
KS: Well you know the United States is so sensitive about issues of race, so they put birds on the cover which speaks nothing of what the book is about. But in the U.K., they found a picture in the national archives, a beautiful black and white photograph of two black maids and one little white baby girl standing on a corner in Where Ever, U.S.A. taken in the 1940s. They sent it to me for approval and it had handwritten "Port Gibson, Mississippi." So I sent it to Charles Greenlee, who sent it to his mama and she said, "Oh, that's so-and-so standing on the corner of Church Street." It ends up it was the daughter of the family that owns the local newspaper in Port Gibson.
Other countries are much less sensitive about exposing the real content of the book. The U.S. is just so paranoid, they thought no one would read it if it was about race or civil rights. One translation has a little black girl in a tutu washing dishes and one has a scared looking black woman talking on the telephone wearing a maid's uniform. The Spanish one is a big plate of cookies and the title translates to "Maids and Ladies."
LF: What's the latest big news about "The Help" that we can talk about?
KS: Well, I don't know … are you talking about the movie?
LF: Yes! What's going on?
KS: Well, you know that Tate and I have been best friends since kindergarten practically. And as I was writing the book I granted him the film rights and he was so smart to know that in Hollywood he couldn't shop a 500-page novel and try to sell it as a movie, so he took the time—a year and a half—and wrote an incredible screenplay. So then he got a phone call from Steven Spielberg. And Chris Columbus—who you know is 1492—is the producer in conjunction with Brunson Green. Tate is the screenwriter and director. And it's all gonna be filmed in Greenwood, Mississippi in mid-summer.
LF: So Kitty, when you and Tate and I were all living in New York together some 15-plus years ago, did you ever dream of collaborating with him on anything? Did that ever enter your head?
KS: I've been trying to get Tate to write his life story for a long time, but his attitude is that he has so much more crazy stuff that's gonna  happen to him, he needs to wait awhile. I hope he'll let me be a part of that, because that's going to be a real emotional experience for him and I would love to help him in any way. He feels like he's only filled out the first 20 chapters but we know, Laura, that he's filled out volumes and volumes already.
LF: Mmhmm. Yes. Hey Kitty, my friends are having fun "casting" this movie, and ….
KS: Tate and Brunson are going back and forth for the casting right now.
LF: Well what character do you have the most interest in?
KS: I think Hilly's going to be the most interesting because you're going to see so many facets of her moods.
LF: Is there a scene you're most excited about, that you'd want to be there watching it?
KS: I would like to see the benefit scene because everybody's there in one room. It's the only part of the story where people all come together and everyone has a little part—the black maids serving; you got Celia Foote acting like a fool; you got Hilly running the show, and you got Skeeter observing. Yeah, I'd love to see that. They're going to film it in an old Elks' Club or old hotel. I think it'll just put you right back in time.
LF: OK Kitty, now you're about to be off on the second part of your book tour, is that what it's called? Part two?
KS: Second hard cover tour.
LF: What are the highlights?
KS: Here's the best part—Octavia's meeting me in Chicago. You think they're gonna get a copy of Hills & Hamlets in L.A.?
LF: You know, you never know. With you being on the front in an interview with the very famous local illustrator it might could go worldwide.
KS: You go online?
LF: Yes, it could go online.
KS: Well I'd like to say this: Octavia Spencer, who I've always dreamed to be Minnie, is in talks for that role. I based the character on her and she voiced the audio book. 
LF: That's awesome, Kitty. OK, finally, here's your last question. Is there a second book in the works?
KS: Yes. It takes place during the Great Depression in Mississippi and it's about a group of women whose men are extracted from their lives through death or divorce or whatever and they are left to find their own means for survival. And they come up with a very creative way to get by.
LF: Should we say what that creative way is?
KS: No, let's leave it hanging.
LF: We'll leave 'em hanging.

Illustrations by Laura Foote
Published in the print edition of Hills & Hamlets© May 2010